We just bought a horse!!

Insert happy dance here!

I’m not sure if you’ve read any of my previous posts, but we’ve been searching for a horse for a long time. For at least two years we’ve been watching ads and going to see local horses for sale, and I even flew to Portland hoping to find “the one”. But none of them have been the right horse!  Our intention was to find a younger horse, who could be my next horse, and then Harrison would continue riding our mare, Dede.  Well apparently I am beyond picky!  I keep looking, and saying “nope that’s not the right one” over and over again.  I don’t like how they are trained by other people, and I also haven’t been love-struck with any of the babies I have seen either.  Don’t get me wrong, there were some really nice horses that we saw, but they weren’t it.  This gets me to my next point, which is my belief that there is truly “the” horse out there for you.  Some people think I am crazy when I say this, but there is this feeling you get when you meet the one.  It’s kind of like your human soulmate.  You just know that you cannot be without them.  So, none of these horses we have seen have given me that feeling, so I haven’t bought them.  If you don’t believe me that this is a thing, just ask my husband.  I think he kind of thought I was crazy when I said this and kept rejecting all the horses we saw…

However, all that changed last week.  CANTER Colorado has listed some really beautiful horses recently, and there were three that caught my eye.  A chestnut, a bay and a gray.  So we decided to go see all of them at once!  I started with the chestnut (he was my favorite), but he ended up having a funky knee, and I don’t want to start with a conformation flaw when we would like to jump this horse.  Next was the gray.   He was handsome, and inquisitive and moved pretty nicely despite ridiculously long feet!  And last was the bay.  A gorgeous 16+ hand thoroughbred who was only 2.  So who did we choose……well Harrison said we could buy two of them if we wanted – and we almost did.  Ultimately, the gray was the one.  It was hilarious because we got in the car, and Harrison said “you know that feeling you told me about that I said wasn’t a real thing?  Well yeah, I want that gray and he made me feel that way!”  I loved the bay horse (Didn’t really see him move but I liked his size and conformation).  However, the owner mentioned that he was bottle raised, and I googled that – apparently bottle raised horses can be really mouthy and difficult to train.  I decided that a horse that will probably be 17+ hands, I don’t want to have trouble training it.  So we decided against him.  To complete our due diligence, we did have our vet out to do a pre-purchase exam.  He passed his pre-purchase exam and so we bought him!

Everyone, meet Gin!  Welcome to the good life!

I don’t know about you all, but somewhere in my horsey past, people made me believe OTTBs were a bit crazy and high strung.  Well I am guessing they can be, but this guy has been nothing but calm and sweet.  He loves to roll in the dirt (I’m guessing you aren’t allowed to do that after the races!) and is very calm and controlled.  I am keeping my guard up for a while, but I feel like he was meant to be with us!  Which is a great feeling.

On an entertaining note – Dede has lived alone for almost 2 years, and has never shown any sign of caring about not having a horse friend (don’t worry I would have bought one if she had indicated that she was lonely in any way).  So she isn’t a very friendly horse.  She is quite frankly really rude to other horses, because they are obviously beneath her (insert eye roll here).  When we bought Gin, I thought, sheesh, I hope Dede at least tolerates him.  Well we are far from tolerating!  She is in love.  She doesn’t even really know him, but she is already obsessed.  It is so adorable!  I am actually really happy that she found another horse to like, I wasn’t sure she’d make a horse friend again in her lifetime.

For the time being, everything seems calm and wonderful with our now TWO horses!  We go through hay bales a little bit faster, but I am guessing our hay guy will like us more!  I am so excited that we found a horse that connected with Harrison and who seems like a level headed, sweet horse.  We are excited for what the future holds, Gin!